FederalNewsRadio.com - Purpose of Comments statement Click to show

Hubbard Radio, LLC encourages site users to express their opinions by posting comments. Our goal is to maintain a civil dialogue in which readers feel comfortable. At times, the comment boards following articles, blog posts and other content can descend to personal attacks. Please do not engage in such behavior here. We encourage your thoughtful comments which:

Have a positive and constructive tone

Are on topic, clear and to-the-point

Are respectful toward others and their opinions

Hubbard Radio, LLC reserves the right to remove comments which do not conform to these criteria.

While the decision is not unexpected given the current budget situation, I suspect attendance this year by industry was going to be down. Last year GSA significantly reduce the presence of its staff at the conference - again somewhat understandable given the situation last year; but, the bigger issue was who was not sent - the Contracting Officers and acquisition staff.For many contractors EXPO provides the one annual opportunity for vendors and GSA contracting staff to meet face-2-face. By loading the flagship location with staff from the CAR organization one of the primary benefits contractors perceived in attending EXPO was taken away. The vendor cost of participating in EXPO was not cheap [that's a separate issue] - the opportunity to meet and discuss contract business issues easily justified the expense [well, maybe not easily for some firms]. The word on the street was that this year's EXPO would have some additional contracting personnel but not enough to warrant incurring costs with no measurable assurance the cost would be justified. Staffing EXPO with CAR staff may have been an attempt to increase the GSA interaction with client using agencies attending; but, it effectively ignored its vendor partners - the largest sales force working on GSA's behalf.

As a vendor- I am very disappointed. This is an event that is actually, in large part, funded by the companies who sell to the government and federal employees piggy back on the event, get valuable training at a substantial savings and get to meet the vendors and see the products that on schedule. The EXPO plays an important role in providing a venue for Government [not just GSA] program and acquisition personnel to meet and exchange with a large vendor community dedicated to their needs. Additionally, EXPO provides a wealth of training to the collective body of Government and contractor personnel - training that is enhanced by the combined presence of all parties. And most of it is on the vendors’ dime. Also think of all the trickle down money to expo, trucking companies, as well as the hotels and restaurants that are going to lose out by cancelling such a large event. This is a foolish & short-sighted cut that will actually cost tax payers more and hurts the economy in the end.